Month: September 2012

This month’s Player Spotlight focuses on Eaque, active Illy player and add-on developer. Nominated by his fellow players, the GMs agree that we all appreciate Eaque’s contribution to the game and community.Learn more about the Player Spotlight program at our website and nominate players by sending an email to community@illyriad.co.uk. Now on with the interview!

GM Luna

Eaque's RL Avatar

What brought you to Illyriad and how long have you been playing?

I discovered Illyriad through the Chrome Web Store, about a year ago and have been playing since. I’m not quite sure what made me sign up as I usually don’t play games, but I’m very happy I did. It was actually my first Illyversary 20 days ago (thanks Vibs for thinking of it).

Have you played many other online games or been active in other online communities?

Being a web developer, computers and Internet are a big part of my life, but oddly enough I’ve never been much of a gamer. Illyriad is the first online game I’ve ever played but I’m part of a few online communities regarding technology and programming.

I also play a game every thursday with friends, called “Werewolves and Villagers” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(party_game)). I definitely sound like a nerd when I mention it, but it’s a great social game, you should give it a go. Gather a group of friends and start playing, you won’t regret it (rules here: https://www.brenbarn.net/werewolf/rules.html). Even the big shots in the Silicon Valley play it (https://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2010/03/features/werewolf?page=all)

What keeps you playing Illyriad?

I keep playing Illyriad because if offers me a great deal of fun and a playground to use my programming skills, all at the same time.

I especially like:

– the depth of the game. I’m quite amazed at the level of complexity existing in Illyriad. It’s also quite well balanced in terms of rules, like the bonus/penalty brought by a new building etc… Kudos to you GMs, must be hell to keep it balanced!

– the dynamic of the community. People are really nice, encouraging, happy to be here and eager to share. I made good friends here and I’m really glad for that.

– the third party tool policy. I just love your position on user-developed tools. You are encouraging developers within the community to create their own addons around Illyriad. This is quite rare and deserves to be praised.

What’s your favorite aspect of the game?

Tough question… Probably the evolving nature of the game, and the fact that you can’t buy your way in.

What’s your proudest achievement in game so far?

What I’m most proud of is my add-on Illytools (https://www.illytools.net/site/page?view=about). I’m always so happy when I receive ingame mails from players telling me how Illytools is useful to them. And SweetSpot probably saved half the players from blindness when looking for a place to settle a new town 🙂

What are you most looking forward to for the future of Illyriad?

I would love to see new continents interconnecting with Elgea. I’m also looking forward to the Faction AI going live, I think it will shake things a bit. (And if possible, more tech blog posts from GMTC explaining the inner workings of Illyriad.)

What area of the game do you think needs the most improvement?

Magic could be improved and expanded to be worth specializing in. Terraforming would be really cool, as all the natural good spots are now taken in Elgea.

What advice would you give a new player in Illyriad?

I’d say “Be patient, Illyriad unfolds as you grow, don’t expect to have everything right away”. And also “Highly addictive game, there’s a good chance you start waking up at night to send vans out”. 🙂

And a big thanks to the community for choosing me for this month’s player spotlight!

It has been a busy time since the July game update that added so many new features to Illyriad. As we continue to work diligently on aspects of that update, I wanted to take a quick break to share with you a little something different.

One of the things that I believe is important in gaming is the ability to put your stamp on the game and world in which you play. Individuality. And while there are a lot of ways to do that in the game world of Illyriad, one area that has been lacking is in the representation of player avatars.

More variety and customizable avatars has been requested by players in the past, and has been a goal of the dev team for some time. We’ve been working with some very talented artists to expand our selection of avatar display choices and have made some significant progress toward finally bringing these options to you in game.

Each race and gender will be able to choose a pose for their avatar as well as choose from a selection of faces, hair styles and colors. You will also be able to purchase a wide variety of background options for your character that represent different types of environments in the game world, or even choose a favorite color if you prefer a simpler look.

One of our core values with Illyriad is not to add Prestige spend options that give a significant advantage to gameplay. In keeping with those values, vanity items like these new avatars and backgrounds will be available for a small Prestige purchase. We cannot say yet when these will be available in game, but we look forward to hearing your feedback and giving our players more options to customize the appearance of their avatars.

For the past 4 years, thousands of gamers have taken part in Extra Life, a 24 hour gaming marathon charity fundraiser. On October 20, gamers from all over the world, including GMs Luna and Cerberus from your intrepid Illyriad dev team, will be playing games for 24 hours straight to raise money to help sick kids. All proceeds raised will go directly to Children’s Miracle Network hospitals to provide comfort and treatment for kids facing all sorts of challenges, all the way from asthma to cancer.

But we can’t do it alone. We need your help. You can take part in 2 ways!

Sponsor Us:

Visit our team’s fundraising page, choose a member from the team to sponsor, click on their name and choose “support me” to sponsor them with your donations. 100% of the money you donate goes directly to the Children’s Miracle Network hospital that the gamer chose to support. Help us meet our initial team-wide goal of $5000 raised!

Join Our Team:

Visit our team’s fundraising page and choose “join this team” to sign up to participate in Extra Life. Once you sign up and join our team, you can help us raise even more money by getting sponsors for yourself to benefit the hospital of your choice. Then, join us on October 20 to play games for 24 hours. Keep in mind, that if you’d like to sign up to play but cannot play on the specified day, or cannot play for 24 hours straight, for any reason, that is OK. You can split the time up however you need that works best for you.

And all IIlyriad players that join our team and earn $100 in sponsorships will receive special prizes both in game and out. You will receive 200 free prestige for your Illyriad account and your choice of a t-shirt from the Illyriad store*.

Leveling Contest:
On the day of the event, GMs Luna and Cerberus will be creating brand new Illyriad accounts and holding a day-long leveling contest. Whichever GM has the highest population at the end of the 24 hour period on their new account wins. Rules include: no special GM powers and no prestige usage (past the initial 25 that comes with the account). Outside resources can be accepted however, so pick your favorite GM and care-a-van away! At the end of the day we will both suspend the accounts and they will be open to any player who wishes to siege them to keep or destroy, your choice.

Livestream:
Throughout the day we will be holding livestream videos on our Twitch.tv channel with updates on our progress with the leveling contest, funds raised and impending exhaustion toward the end of the day. A schedule will be posted on the forums nearer to the event with more details.

We look forward to an exciting year and thank everyone for their support in our participation in Extra Life!

*Prizes require an active Illyriad account and valid mailing address. Contact GM Luna in email, pm or IGM after you’ve signed up to confirm your spot on the team and connect your fundraising page with an Illyriad account. Extra Life is not created by, sponsored by or in any way affiliated with Illyriad Games, Ltd. All donations go directly to the charity involved and are in no way the responsibility of Illyriad Games, Ltd.